Direct-sold advertising offers a number of benefits for publishers, including broader revenue opportunities and deeper relationships with partners. But without the right plan in place, teams might be forced to do more heavy lifting than they should. How are the world’s top publishers working with DV to avoid these issues and close more direct deals?
The answer, like many things in digital advertising, comes down to data.
Brands and agencies often prefer direct-sold deals because they allow buyers to purchase the most performant pockets of inventory. They also tend to prefer direct relationships with publishers because they can work together to build trust and optimize performance over time.
When choosing which publishers to work with, many factors come into play. Here are the main factors that they consider:
Performance: Can the publisher maintain (and improve) ad performance over time to help meet key advertising KPIs?
Quality: Is the publisher’s inventory highly viewable and consistently free of fraud or invalid traffic?
Suitability: Can the publisher deliver ads alongside content that aligns with company and audience values?
A publisher sales team is constantly attempting to answer these questions, and they should strive for a blend of convincing statistics and compelling narratives. Advertisers want to see results, but they also want partners that understand their unique needs and can deliver on them consistently.
Content relevance is a key selling point for publishers, but it can also help them understand which buyers to target and why. With transparency into advertiser content preferences, publishers can better understand how their inventory is perceived by advertisers in similar verticals.
These key learnings can help focus prospecting efforts and enhance the impact of sales pitches. Publishers can also use vertical data to answer important questions such as:
Which advertisers find their inventory valuable, and which do not?
Which verticals carry the most untapped potential?
Which buyers are worth engaging despite low vertical compatibility?
With access to content compatibility data, publishers can better wield media quality metrics to speak to advertisers in specific industries. Partners like DV can make interpreting this data even easier with a single, easy-to-read score that publishers can use to determine where they stand across different verticals.
One of the main reasons direct deals have become so appealing in recent years is the opportunity for advertisers to build long-term partnerships with the largest publishers. These metrics and insights can offer a differentiating boost at every stage of a publisher’s sales cycle, especially when sales conversations are kicking off.
With the Inventory Compatibility Score in DV Publisher Suite, publishers can do their part to create and sustain those connections easily and effectively. Contact DV today for more information or to schedule a demo.